"It" Breaks Summer Box Office Slump

Summer is almost over and, while the music industry is soaring, the season couldn’t end too soon for most film companies. But Warner Brothers’ “It” managed to shake off the summer movie slump this weekend as it opened at the top of the box office both domestically and internationally, clearing an estimated $179.2M.

“It”, which was based on the Stephen King novel of the same name, stars Jaeden Lieberher and Bill Skarsgård, and was directed by Argentinian Andy Muschietti, whose resume also includes the successful 2013 horror film “Mama.”

The weekend box office numbers for “It’ were a marked improvement over King’s last attempt to jump from the novel to the screen. “The Black Tower” which opened early this summer and which was also based on a novel by King, drew little interest from fans, and its worldwide cumulative of $107m take has already been surpassed by the domestic take of “It” which passed $117m on its debut weekend, according to estimates compiled by comScore.

Sony’s “Spider Man: Homecoming” also had a flush of revenue this weekend after opening in China. The film, which opened in the U.S. in June, added $73.8M and is closing in on $900m cumulative worldwide.

The top 12 worldwide weekend box office estimates, listed in descending order, per data collected as of Sunday, September 10